So yet another new week and I find myself trying to figure out how to make the most of it. There's so many things going on in my brain it's hard to know where to begin. Today I stumbled across Edith Head (thanks to Google's homepage) who was a famous costume designer and the only female to ever win 8 Academy Awards in a lifetime. I wasn't expecting much when I clicked on the link to her biography but it turns out she started a fire within me. It's easy to admire someone's story but they too had a moment of not knowing how their life would turn out.
To overview her educational life, she graduated high school in Los Angeles and attended the University of California, Berkley where she obtained a degree in letters and sciences with honors in French. She then got her Master's in romance languages and moved on to become a language teacher specifically in French. With a desire to earn more money, she applied to be an art teacher, in addition to French, even though she had no real background or experience in it. She took a night class to brush up on her rudimentary drawing skills and started teaching. Somewhere within this time, she discovered her passion in sketching costumes so she applied to the Paramount Pictures costume department and was miraculously hired with no prior experience. She later admitted to borrowing a student's sketchbook to get the job but has since proven herself a legend in her own right.
Now I'm not condoning taking another's work or pretending to be super skilled to get a job but her path made me realize a couple things.
1. If you want to do something in life go for it and if you don't have the natural skill it's ok. You can learn it! Putting time into any art or skill can pay off for a lifetime. Small steps amount to bigger things. There's no rush.
2. Everything you do in life is setting you up for your calling. The small things you do each day have meaning.
I've been in a rut as to how to spend my time and where to direct my efforts and because of my indecision feel like I'm wasting time. Just reading her brief bio showed me how small steps lead to the bigger picture. Her credentials look impressive but I'm sure she went through a period of questioning and uncertainty. She could've been nervous teaching art (maybe second guessed it) knowing she in fact wasn't even qualified by the world's standards. Her story is incredible but I wish we could discover how she felt in between each life decision.
It gives me hope that as I find my passions, experiment, and think of where to invest my time that things will fall into place. It also gives me hope that any job or path I take isn't the end of the road because I can always change. Every skill I learn, job I take, and passion I discover will lead me to my calling. I strongly believe that those who have achieved wonderful things had a huge amount of faith more than anything else. They had the right mixture of courage, skill, and luck to make them successful in their lives. I imagine inspirational people like Edith Head had faith and also believed she had something of value to contribute to this world.
This week I plan on painting a picture of my ideal life and working backwards from there. What do I need to do each day to attain the life I want? I know it's time to start small and build something great. Whether it's 30 minutes of Italian lessons a day or writing songs for 15 minutes a day at least it's something. Here we go :)
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